Social Mediahttps://barnard.edu/taxonomy/term/501/all
enDigital Initiatives at Barnardhttps://barnard.edu/news/digital-initiatives-barnard
<div class="field field-name-field-taxonomytopics field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics/entrepreneurship" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">entrepreneurship</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-113" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">communication</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-101" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">faculty</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-36" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">education</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-83" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">business</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-104" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Caribbean, Central and South America</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics/stem" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">STEM</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-43" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">student</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics/campus" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">campus</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-16" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">technology</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-145" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Computing</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-144" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Internet</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-146" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Social Media</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p><img alt="" class="media-image" height="230" style="width: 420px; height: 201px;" width="480" typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://barnard.edu/sites/default/files/styles/wysiwyg_large/public/news/images/librarycover.jpg?itok=Xt0RN9t-" /></p>
<p><strong><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Rebooting Computer Science Culture</span></strong><br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In her senior year of high school in New Orleans, Jada Hawkins ’16 signed up for a computer science class. “I had no idea </span><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">what it was,” she says. “I just thought the subject was interesting—the idea that you could make something just by typing.” However, Hawkins’s curiosity quickly turned to frustration. She was one of only three girls in the class, and the male teacher did not welcome them.</span><br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“Why are you guys here? This is </span><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">computer science, a man’s sport,” Hawkins recalls him saying. One girl dropped out, but Hawkins remained, enduring two semesters of inappropriate jokes and feeling excluded because of </span><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">her gender. “It was just a rough, rough year,” she says. Though the sexism she faced nearly made her write off computer </span><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">science altogether, her interest in the subject persisted.</span><br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Now the junior is aiming to build an entirely new computer science culture— one in which women do belong—as one </span><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">of the founders of a new web-design agency at Barnard. The Athena Digital Design Agency (ADDA) is a student-run start-up being developed by the Athena Center for Leadership Studies. Students learn how to create websites with HTML and CSS, as well as with JavaScript and Ruby programming languages, then have the opportunity to earn money designing websites for local small businesses. As </span><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">a founder of ADDA, Hawkins wants </span><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">to change the culture of computing</span><br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">and create a new generation of women who code. What’s more, she’s building </span><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">a socially responsible business and becoming a leader and entrepreneur in the process.</span><br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;" />
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<p><em><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">TACKLING THE CULTURE OF “BROGRAMMING”</span></em><br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;" />
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<p><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Hawkins’s high school experience is not uncommon, and more opportunity for women to learn programming is sorely needed, explains Kathryn Kolbert, the Constance Hess Williams ’66 Director of the Athena Center. “Coding has been very gendered,” she says.</span><br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Even at the college level, women rarely find an easy path into computer science. “An alarming number of women at Barnard or Columbia who take an intro to computing class drop it within the first two weeks,” says Nathalie Molina Niño, who heads entrepreneurial programs at the Athena Center. That’s largely due </span><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">to the male-dominated “brogrammer” coding culture, says Niño, who has a technology background. Computer science classes tend to be dominated by young men who have been hacking for years, learning jargon and inside jokes from other young men.</span><br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Since Niño’s role at the center is supporting female entrepreneurs, she </span><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">hit upon a way to address two major shortages—of women entrepreneurs and women computer scientists. The answer: </span><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">launch a web-design business. </span><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“What if we do something like Barnard </span><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Bartending?” she asked. A long-standing, student-run campus business, Barnard Bartending teaches students how to mix drinks, then sets them up with bartending gigs. Niño wanted to follow that model: teach women to code and then put them to work. But the plan would only succeed if student founders took charge, Niño realized. “It had to be grassroots and it had to be supported by the students and ultimately run by the students.”</span><br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">That’s where Hawkins comes in.</span><br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;" />
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<p><em><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A STUDENT START-UP</span></em><br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><img alt="" class="media-image media-image-right" height="306" style="width: 297px; height: 306px; float: right;" width="297" typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://barnard.edu/sites/default/files/styles/wysiwyg_medium/public/torchpullout.jpg?itok=JME11lDO" /></p>
<p><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Shortly after arriving at Barnard as </span><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">a freshman, Hawkins decided to give computer science a second try. In her sophomore year, when Niño presented</span></p>
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<p><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">the opportunity for a leadership role at what would become the Athena Digital Design Agency, Hawkins jumped at it. The shape of the new business soon emerged: students could sign up to take three courses, each building on the previous one. They would learn HTML and CSS, JavaScript and jQuery, and Ruby on Rails. Students who met certain proficiency benchmarks would be able to join ADDA as staff coders and be hired to create websites for clients.</span><br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Over 200 students signed up for ADDA’s first class last spring (40 got in), and the second course debuted in the fall. A second group (of 30) also got started in fall, with yet another (of 40) beginning in spring. This spring, the agency is offering all three courses for the first time, filling out its roster of qualified coders.</span><br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The agency began accepting clients </span><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">at the end of January. However, Hawkins and Niño have even more ambitious plans for its future. If ADDA can sustain itself at Barnard, the next step is to become a national franchise, with sister web-design agencies at campuses across the country.</span><br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><em><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">DESIGNING A BRIGHT FUTURE</span></em></p>
<p><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">By many measures, the Athena Digital Design Agency has already been a success. Dozens of women have learned to </span><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">make basic websites. And not only is the program bringing more women to coding, it’s also “incredibly diverse,” Niño says; over 70 percent of participants are women of color.The group’s first paying client was the global girls’ education advocacy group the Malala Fund.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">When the design agency is fully operational, it will serve the community around Barnard, building websites for small nonprofits and mom-and-pop shops that might not be able to afford a more established web-design agency. That </span><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">sort of social responsibility is integral to the mission. Hawkins says she’s has no patience for tech entrepreneurs who make millions with dazzling products that do little to make the world a better place. She’s already working on a phone app </span><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">to help prevent sexual abuse on college campuses.</span></p>
<p><br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Hawkins says she has come a long way from the frustration of her high school computing class. Not only has she chosen computer science as her major, she’s caught the social-entrepreneur bug as well. “I definitely want to code in the future, but I know that I really love the business side to things,” she says. “If it’s possible for me to combine the two, that would be amazing." </span></p>
<p><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><em>—</em></span><em><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">by Thomas MacMillan</span></em></p>
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<p><strong><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Library’s New Digital </span><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Collections Showcases </span><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Barnard’s History</span></strong><br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Barnard’s Library recently launched the Barnard Digital Collections (digitalcollections.barnard.edu), a web- based resource of digitized archival materials reflecting the College’s legacy of excellence in women’s education. Featuring content from the Barnard Archives and Special Collections (archives.barnard.edu), the Digital Collections provide a glimpse into </span><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">the history of women’s education and collegiate culture, 19th- and 20th- century struggles for women’s rights, and the history and development of Morningside Heights and NewYork City.</span><br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“The Digital Collections make Barnard’s vibrant history more easily accessible to alumnae, the wider Barnard community, and researchers everywhere,” said Barnard’s digital archivist Martha Tenney, noting that the launch coincides with Barnard’s 125th anniversary, which is being celebrated with a variety of events and special projects throughout the 2014–2015 academic year.</span><br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><em><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">COLLECTION HIGHLIGHTS</span></em><br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">• A photography collection with </span><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">images of the storied Greek Games, the Morningside Heights campus, </span><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">and notable alumnae, all accessible using an advanced, open-source image viewer that allows for deep zooming and clear resolution, even on highly detailed images. Concurrent with the launch is the Digital Collections’ first exhibit, curated by Barnard librarian Heidi Winston. The exhibit comprises images of student participation in demonstrations and movements—from suffrage to Black Power to reproductive rights.</span><br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">• The Barnard Bulletin, Barnard’s weekly student newspaper (and later its student magazine), is digitized and searchable from 1901 through 2002 and reflects </span><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">a century of student life, the Barnard curriculum and faculty, and events around the city and the country—such as the issue from February 25, 1965 that features an article on Malcolm X’s last speech, delivered at Barnard days before his assassination, alongside articles about a SNCC meeting at Columbia and the new student editor of the Bulletin.</span><br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">• The Mortarboard, Barnard’s yearbook, has also been digitized, documenting the changing population of students and providing a window into the activities and concerns of women’s college students over the course of </span><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">the 20th century, often with hand- drawn illustrations. Barnard gratefully acknowledges Jessica Schwartz ’13 and the Schwartz family, whose donation made digitizing The Mortarboard possible. </span><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The site—a project of the Barnard Archives and Special Collections, which is part of the Barnard Library and Academic Information Services, in conjunction with Barnard College InformationTechnology—reflects </span><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">the hard work of many people across Barnard’s community including digital archivist Martha Tenney, instructional applications developer Dillon Savage, and College archivist Shannon O’Neill, along with BCIT staff, archives fellows, and student staff. Special thanks are also due to former library dean Lisa Norberg for the vision and advocacy that pushed this initiative through.</span><br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Digital Collections employ the Islandora platform, an open-source software framework built on a base of Drupal, Fedora, and Solr. The contents will expand to include more of Barnard’s rich history and archival materials.</span></p>
<div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><em>—by Jenna Freedman, associate director of communications, Barnard Library</em></div>
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<p><strong><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Digital Expression and the Caribbean</span></strong></p>
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<p><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Members of the interdisciplinary Digital Black Atlantic Project </span><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">took an unprecedented look at the dimensions of digital expression and its implications for the Caribbean and its diaspora during a first-of-its-kind Caribbean Digital Conference.</span><br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The December conference explored approaches to developing projects and creating community in an increasingly digital academic environment.With </span><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">a focus on the Caribbean and its diaspora, the gathering offered fertile ground for analyzing the intersection of information technologies with fields such as American studies, gender </span><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">and sexuality studies, black studies, and communications, among others.</span><br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The discussions were preceded by the Kamau Brathwaite “researchathon.” The event—launching an open-access, online bibliography of work by and on Caribbean intellectual Brathwaite— generated over 500 bibliographic contributions in just six hours.</span><br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">David Scott, Columbia anthropology professor and founder </span><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">of the journal Small Axe, closed with</span><br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">a provocative reflection on the future of publishing.</span><br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Organizers were Kaiama L. Glover, associate professor of French and Africana studies at Barnard; Kelly Baker Josephs, associate professor </span><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">of English at York College, CUNY; and Alex Gil, digital scholarship coordinator and affiliate faculty in English and comparative studies </span><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">at Columbia. The conference was generously supported by the Center for the Study of Social Difference at Columbia, Barnard’s Africana studies department, and the Committee on Online and On-Campus Learning (COOL).</span></p>
<div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><em>—by Yasmine Espert</em></div>
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</div></div></div>Fri, 27 Feb 2015 15:40:17 +0000abp214743511 at https://barnard.eduGabby Noone '16: Blogger and Feminist https://barnard.edu/news/gabby-noone-16-blogger-and-feminist
<div class="field field-name-field-taxonomytopics field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-32" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">writing</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-17" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">women</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-37" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">New York</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-43" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">student</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-146" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Social Media</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-157" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">feminism</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p>Gabby creates content for teen girls at <a href="http://www.rookiemag.com/author/gabby/">Rookie Magazine</a> and worked as a DIY blogger at <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/gabbynoone">Buzzfeed</a>. </p>
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</div></div></div>Tue, 12 Aug 2014 18:42:53 +0000rdouglas37986 at https://barnard.eduEmily-Anne Rigal '16: Activist and Entrepreneurhttps://barnard.edu/news/emily-anne-rigal-16-activist-and-entrepreneur
<div class="field field-name-field-taxonomytopics field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-89" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">film</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-123" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">mentoring</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-141" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">internship</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-18" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">gender</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-17" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">women</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-48" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">mentor</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-37" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">New York</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-146" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Social Media</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-91" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">youth</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-92" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">adolescents</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics/girls" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">girls</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p>Emily-Anne is the founder and director of the nonprofit program <a href="http://westophate.org/">We Stop Hate</a>, dedicated to raising self-esteem in teens through social media. </p>
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</div></div></div>Thu, 09 Jan 2014 20:54:50 +0000rdouglas31426 at https://barnard.eduSocial Media: The New Frontier of Global Leadership https://barnard.edu/events/social-media-new-frontier-global-leadership
<div class="field field-name-field-subtitle field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">A discussion with Craig Newmark</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-eventdatedisplay field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">September 26, 2013</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-eventtimedisplay field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">5 PM</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-eventlocation field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Julius S. Held Lecture Hall, 304 Barnard Hall</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-taxonomyevents field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/event-type-3" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">lecture</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-taxonomytopics field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-16" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">technology</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-146" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Social Media</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p>Craig Newmark, Internet pioneer and founder of craigslist, one of the world's most widely used websites, will let you in on how he went from being a nerd and an outsider to his decision to forego big-money Silicon Valley in favor of "doing well by doing good." And he learned a few lessons along the way-basics like knowing when enough is enough, and treating people like you want to be treated. In 2011, Craig launched craigconnects, his initiative to link up everyone on the planet using the Internet to bear witness to good efforts and encourage the same behavior in others. From helping nonprofits with social media to empowering billions of people to work together, he shows no sign of stopping, planning to "boldly go where no nerd has gone before."</p>
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</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-date field-type-datetime field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><span class="date-display-single" property="dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2013-09-26T17:00:00-04:00">Sep 26 2013 - 5:00pm</span></div></div></div>Fri, 27 Sep 2013 03:00:00 +0000lstuffle27326 at https://barnard.eduOf Letters, Leaks, and Tweets https://barnard.edu/news/letters-leaks-and-tweets
<div class="field field-name-field-taxonomytopics field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-179" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">alumnae</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-32" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">writing</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-30" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Barnard College</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-142" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">president</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-59" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">media</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-43" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">student</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-16" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">technology</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-145" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Computing</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-144" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Internet</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-146" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Social Media</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <h3>When I was in college in the early 1980s, letters—on paper, in ink, with self-licked stamps and everything—were the primary form of communication. Cell phones, Facebook, and e-mail were inconceivable; the payphone in the hallway was noisy and unreliable. And so, like every college student of that era, I wrote letters. Lots and lots of letters. I wrote whining letters to my parents, diligent letters to my grandparents, and daily, lovesick letters to the boyfriend I had left up north. I wrote so many letters to him, in fact, that rumor has it the student workers at his college’s mail room played games every day to decipher the secret acronyms I scrawled on each and every envelope. Recently, when this friend was in a horrific accident, my thoughts went instantly to the cache of letters I still have somewhere in the attic; letters that, for all their angst and silliness, captured a key moment in this now-middle-aged man’s life.</h3>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" class="media-image" height="450" width="300" typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://barnard.edu/sites/default/files/styles/wysiwyg_medium/public/spar.jpg?itok=IQEGZ490" /></p>
<p>Today, of course, letters have become an endangered species. Rather than telling their tales or singing their woes in print, students communicate across a wide and rapidly expanding range of media. They e-mail. They text. They IM and pin and tweet. Rather than meeting potential partners at a mixer or in a bar, they hook up through sites such as OkCupid and HowAboutWe. Rather than writing letters home about their studies abroad, they post photos to Instagram and log their travels on Tumblr.</p>
<p>In many ways, this explosion of communication channels has facilitated a parallel expansion of communication itself. Today, most Barnard students write daily and fluidly, freed from the compunction to have someone specific to talk to or something specific to say. They have friends scattered around the world and means to access information from the most remote corners of the planet. When we traveled to São Paulo in March for our 2013 Global Symposium, our student fellows tweeted and blogged throughout the day, sending real-time missives back to campus and beyond.</p>
<p>These are the information flows that define both social and commercial discourse in the early 21st century. They are the drivers of the highest growth sectors in our economy and the holders of the jobs to which many of our students aspire. Yet even in these pre-nostalgic days of constant communication, I can’t help thinking that something precious is being lost amidst this move from paper to pixels, something fundamental about the way we interact with those we like and love.</p>
<p>Here is what concerns me. First is the basic loss of physicality, of the smell and touch and sight that once surrounded the act of writing letters. Once upon a time, people’s personalities registered through their handwriting, with the slope of an “l” or the swoop of an “e” conveying something that mattered. People wrote on stationery they chose, whether it be perfumed or monogrammed or torn, hastily, from the back pages of a notebook. When I went to summer camp many years ago, my mother wrote every day, on bright yellow paper wrapped in similarly bright envelopes. I don’t remember much about the content of her notes, but I remember the sight of them, and how the paper alone conveyed a waft of homesickness. Now I write my daughter over e-mail, trying to recall which collection of question marks and exclamation points will create the emoticon that stands for love.</p>
<p>I also worry about how electronic communication destroys time. When letters were constructed from pen and paper, they took time—time to conceive, to create, to re-write and ponder over. They took time—sometimes agonizing, heart-wrenching time—to be received at the other end. Think for a moment of <em>Downton Abbey’s </em>fictitious Anna, waiting for the stolen letters of her beloved Mr. Bates. Or of the real-life Samuel Morse, who created the telegraph after hearing, too late, of his young wife’s death. Clearly, in this latter case, e-mail or texting might have helped, but the very real-time nature of communication can impede communication as well, allowing quick messages to be forged by the urgency or anger of a moment. Quick messages, like all contemporary messages, are also relegated with equal speed to the cloud, a vast and inchoate space that remains very difficult to conceptualize. Will my personal emails, carefully filed in my Outlook (or Gmail, or whatever) folders really be there when I want to reminisce over them, 40 years from now? Will they be there for my children, if they ever want to understand them, or me? Or will the cloud devour such ephemera once I’ve forgotten my password again?</p>
<p>Which brings me to my third concern. Because, as we’ve learned from various unfortunate scandals over the past several years, no electronic message ever truly disappears. I may forget my login or tire of social media, but Facebook remembers every post I’ve ever posted or personal message I’ve ever sent. Our children’s unfortunate photos are stuck on their walls, now, forever; our partners’ indiscretions are logged, not so discreetly, on their smartphones. Maybe the world is better off with the eternal vigilance of WikiLeaks. Or maybe we were safer when our words were simultaneously more perishable and more private.</p>
<p>Thankfully, my friend survived his accident and our letters are left, once again, to the vagaries of whatever mice or memories may desire them. I don’t know if I will ever read them, or if anyone will ever care. But there is something about the tangibility of long- lost time, saved, as it is, on paper, in bundles, for real.</p>
<p>For now, though, I have thrown caution to the cloud and started to tweet. You can follow me @deboraspar. Happy Spring!</p>
<p><em style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, 'Nimbus Sans L', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.015625px;">—Photograph by Steve DeCanio</em></p>
<p> </p>
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</div></div></div>Fri, 07 Jun 2013 19:19:37 +0000rdouglas25891 at https://barnard.eduTED Talk Screening: Alain de Bottonhttps://barnard.edu/events/TED-TALK
<div class="field field-name-field-subtitle field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Staying Present: Stress-Management and Anti-Anxiety Week</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-eventdatedisplay field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Thursday, April 25, 2013</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-eventtimedisplay field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">6:30PM - 7:30PM</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-eventlocation field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Furman Conference Room 98 Brooks Hall FIrst floor</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-taxonomyevents field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/event-type-8" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">film</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-taxonomytopics field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-36" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">education</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-9" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">health</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-59" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">media</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-97" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">psychology</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-55" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">behavior</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-41" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">society</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-146" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Social Media</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics/free-events" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">free events</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-share field-type-addthis field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style " addthis:title="TED Talk Screening: Alain de Botton - Barnard College" addthis:url="https://barnard.edu/events/TED-TALK"><a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_facebook"></a>
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</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-date field-type-datetime field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><span class="date-display-single" property="dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2013-04-18T00:00:00-04:00">Apr 18 2013 (All day)</span></div></div></div>Fri, 26 Apr 2013 03:59:00 +0000ndelfier24886 at https://barnard.eduMuslim Women, Activism & New Media Cultureshttps://barnard.edu/events/muslim-women-activism-new-media-cultures
<div class="field field-name-field-subtitle field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">A conversation with Ousseina Alidou and others</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-eventdatedisplay field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Wednesday, November 14, 2012</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-eventtimedisplay field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">6:30 PM</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-eventlocation field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Sulzberger Parlor, 3rd Floor Barnard Hall</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-taxonomyevents field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/event-type-4" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">panel</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-taxonomytopics field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-38" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">activism</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-18" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">gender</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-19" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">feminism</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-70" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Islam</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-16" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">technology</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-144" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Internet</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-146" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Social Media</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p><img alt="Muslim Women, Activism, and New Media Cultures event image" class="image-inline_large" src="https://barnard.edu/sites/default/files/styles/inline_large/public/images/inline/muslim-women-event.jpg" title="" /></p>
<p>Many scholars within a variety of disciplines have begun to examine ways in which new media technologies in the Muslim world have helped amplify discussions and debates about the role and meaning of Islam in everyday life. Led by Ousseina Alidou, faculty member in the department of African, Middle Eastern, and South Asian languages and literatures at Rutgers University, this panel considers how women in different Muslim contexts, who may or may not identify with feminism, are engaging media to explore different understandings of Islam in relation to their gendered lives and experiences.</p>
<p>This event is sponsored by <a href="http://bcrw.barnard.edu">The Barnard Center for Research on Women</a>. For more information, visit <a href="http://bcrw.barnard.edu/event/muslim-women-activism-and-new-media-cultures/">bcrw.barnard.edu</a>.</p>
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</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-date field-type-datetime field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><span class="date-display-single" property="dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2012-11-14T18:30:00-05:00">Nov 14 2012 - 6:30pm</span></div></div></div>Thu, 15 Nov 2012 03:00:00 +0000lstuffle13001 at https://barnard.eduDigital Community Formationhttps://barnard.edu/events/digital-community-formation
<div class="field field-name-field-subtitle field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">A roundtable discussion with Jon Beller, Brittney Cooper, Gail Drakes, Dana Goldstein, Renina Jarmon, and Courtney Martin &#039;02</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-eventdatedisplay field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Tuesday, October 9, 2012</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-eventtimedisplay field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">6:30 PM</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-eventlocation field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Event Oval, The Diana Center</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-taxonomyevents field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/event-type-4" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">panel</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-taxonomytopics field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-38" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">activism</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-18" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">gender</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-19" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">feminism</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-59" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">media</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-16" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">technology</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-146" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Social Media</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p><img alt="Digital Community Formation event image" class="image-inline_large" src="https://barnard.edu/sites/default/files/styles/inline_large/public/images/inline/digital-event-image.jpg" title="" /></p>
<p>Academics and writers alike have long worked within established processes for peer-review and editing. But both are now confronted with a rapidly shifting landscape in which online channels provide new opportunities for feedback, networking, and collaboration. In this roundtable discussion, panelists Courtney Martin ’02 (Valenti Martin Media), Brittney Cooper (Crunk Feminist Collective and Rutgers University), Gail Drakes (NYU), Dana Goldstein (New America Foundation/The Nation Institute), Renina Jarmon (New Model Minority and University of Maryland), and moderator Jon Beller (Pratt Institute) examine the ways in which digital media outlets are changing traditional methods of research, collaboration, and publication, as well as the political and ethical impact of letting ideas develop in the public eye.</p>
<p>This event is sponsored by <a href="http://bcrw.barnard.edu">The Barnard Center for Research on Women</a>. For more information, visit <a href="http://bcrw.barnard.edu/event/digital-community-formation/">bcrw.barnard.edu</a>.</p>
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</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-date field-type-datetime field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><span class="date-display-single" property="dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2012-10-09T18:30:00-04:00">Oct 9 2012 - 6:30pm</span></div></div></div>Wed, 10 Oct 2012 03:00:00 +0000lstuffle12948 at https://barnard.eduSpeak up! Establishing Online Voice through Blogging – for Barnard Studentshttps://barnard.edu/events/speak-establishing-online-voice-through-blogging-barnard-students
<div class="field field-name-field-subtitle field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">A workshop with Julie Zeilinger ’15 and Lulu Mickelson ’14</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-eventdatedisplay field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Wednesday, October 10, 2012</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-eventtimedisplay field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">6:30 PM</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-eventlocation field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">BCRW, 101 Barnard Hall</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-taxonomyevents field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/event-type-22" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">workshop</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-taxonomytopics field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-38" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">activism</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-16" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">technology</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-146" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Social Media</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p><img alt="Blogging Workshop image" class="image-inline_large" src="https://barnard.edu/sites/default/files/styles/inline_large/public/images/inline/speak-up-event-image.jpg" title="" /></p>
<p>In conjunction with the launch of the <a href="http://bcrw.barnard.edu/blog/" target="_blank" title="link to BCRW Blog">BCRW Blog</a>, this evening workshop will familiarize Barnard students with the medium of blogging–providing tools, rules, and examples to encourage participants to contribute their voices to the Blogosphere. It will cover the general guidelines of blog style and content by deconstructing the details of an effective post, discussing the importance of personal tone, and outlining methods for quoting, linking, and connecting to current events. The workshop will also touch on the platforms, outlets, and online resources available to student bloggers, encouraging blogging as an avenue for feminist writing, online activism, and social change.</p>
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</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-date field-type-datetime field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><span class="date-display-single" property="dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2012-10-10T18:30:00-04:00">Oct 10 2012 - 6:30pm</span></div></div></div>Fri, 10 Aug 2012 16:36:24 +0000hdector13112 at https://barnard.eduInto the Blogospherehttps://barnard.edu/headlines/blogosphere
<div class="field field-name-field-taxonomytopics field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-144" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Internet</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-146" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Social Media</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p><img alt="blogging collage" class="image-inline_medium" src="https://barnard.edu/../../sites/default/files/styles/inline_medium/public/images/inline/blogging.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0pt 1em 1em 0pt;" title="" /><strong>After she graduated </strong>from Barnard in 1998, Heather Currier Hunt’s life started down the path she had more or less anticipated: She earned an MFA in creative writing from the New School, got married, and settled in a tiny Pennsylvania town where she and her artist husband, Colin, could work on their respective media. They bought a house and had a baby.</p>
<p>Then it was discovered that their daughter, Willa, had a rare genetic defect called Costello Syndrome, which causes global developmental delays and other health problems. “After the shock of the initial diagnosis,” she tells Barnard, “you feel incredibly cut off. As a classic Barnard woman, I’d done all my homework about pregnancy and parenting. And then I had Willa and none of it applied whatsoever. I felt cut off from the life I thought I’d have, from other mothers, from my own family.”</p>
<p>So Hunt did something that, as “a complete Luddite,” she never would have anticipated: She started pouring out her feelings on the Internet. Her Web site, a blog called “Living in Invisible Cities” (see sidebar for the URL), describes her life and feelings as a mother to a special-needs child.</p>
<p>“I found that getting my thoughts down, specifically in the form of a blog, was wildly helpful,” she says. “It was journaling, but not just for me: it was public. To my surprise, other mothers I didn’t know quickly started responding, saying they know what it feels like. It gave me a community feeling, the feeling that it’s OK to say the ugly stuff. It was liberating and helped me move forward.”</p>
<p><strong>Blogging Women</strong></p>
<p>Hunt is one of 8 million American women who maintain a “blog” (short for “Web log”), an online diary, political soapbox, or creative space open to any reader who stumbles upon it. Blogs have been a popular form of expression for at least 10 years, but have grown exponentially as a phenomenon since the creation of Blogger, WordPress, and other online services that make it possible for those with no technical expertise to create a personal Web site, often for free. Alumnae interested in reading or setting up a blog, but uncertain about where to start, can go to the new Alumnae Network, alum. barnard.edu, and create one or browse classmates’ profiles for their blogs.</p>
<p>Today, “more than half of American women who [use the Internet] go to social networking sites [such as blogs, Facebook, and Twitter] every week,” says Elisa Camahort Page, COO of BlogHer, an online media company focused on women. “That’s 42 million women. It’s more people than download music or share photos online.”</p>
<p>Almost 23 million American women read blogs. Blogging is a “natural medium for women,” she says, because it “fulfills the desire to have conversations, to form bonds. It’s a powerful way for women to change the game for themselves, to create their own platform, be it for personal expression, or political opinions, or business views. For lots of women, blogs have replaced the kitchen table in our time-impoverished lives.”</p>
<p>It’s not just young women who blog. Although only 46 percent of baby boomer women are involved in online social networking, compared to 73 percent of “millennials” aged 18-26, since there are so many more boomers, they number about 3.5 million more than the youngest online social- networkers. According to Camahort Page, almost a third of women age 63 and older are using online social tools, including blogs. (Bloggers tend to be the most active users of all social media platforms.)</p>
<p>The vast majority of bloggers write about their daily lives or thoughts, often with a specific focus—such as the blogs by Barnard graduates on being a young mother with cancer (“Coffee and Chemo”) or on being a Jew who is applying for German citizenship (“Fatherland”)—though some alumnae, such as Caroline Pet Ceniza-Levine ’93, blog on topics related to their businesses (in Ceniza-Levine’s case, career coaching) as a means to garner publicity and new clients.</p>
<p>Those unfamiliar with blogging are often puzzled: Why would one reveal one’s activities and thoughts on as public (and often cruel) a place as the Internet—and who reads these blogs, anyhow? According to Camahort Page, the top four reasons why people blog are entertainment, self-expression, finding a community of like-minded people (since most blogs enable readers to leave comments and thereby engage in dialogue), and sharing information or advice.</p>
<p>Readers often gravitate to blogs that either discuss a common interest or hobby (for example, many foodies enjoy reading “Not Derby Pie” by Rivka Friedman ’05) or, alternatively, expose one to different ways of living or thinking. Heterosexuals may be enlightened by the work of Lily Icangelo ’13, who blogs for the site Autostraddle about her experiences as a lesbian at Barnard.</p>
<p>Not surprisingly, Barnard graduates blog on a wide variety of topics, from becoming a single mother via sperm donor (“Jewish Single Mom By Choice”), to how to dress stylishly and inexpensively for a corporate job (“What Would Krissie Wear”).</p>
<p><strong>Creative Approach</strong></p>
<p>Former Centennial Scholar and Barnard Writing Fellow Sasha Soreff ’94, founder and creative director of Brooklyn’s Sasha Soreff Dance Theater, blogs about choreography and the rehearsal process at sashasoreffdance.com. Since 2002, a congenital problem has prevented her from dancing barefoot, leading to the creation of her movement piece “The Dancer Who Wore Sneakers and Other Tales.”</p>
<p>The company’s Web site was already in place, but she added the blog to explore the question of “what it’s like to have my whole style of dance have to change,” she explains. “How do I navigate being a dancer who cannot be barefoot? And how would the act of writing about my creative process change my creative process?”</p>
<p>Now the blog is an important tool for her choreography. “It helps me be more rigorous in what I’m doing,” she says, “more accountable and transparent. It forces me to be more honest about when something isn’t working. I want to be able to articulate what’s going on. Dance is hard for people to understand. It’s not as accessible as theatre or music. I wanted to break down those barriers, communicate what is going on with me while I’m creating, in the hope that it will become more relatable.” She also has open rehearsals, so that audience members can give feedback as Soreff’s work is under construction.</p>
<p><strong>Moneymaker or Hobby</strong></p>
<p>Like other forms of writing, the blogging genre is rarely lucrative, but in some cases it can lead to, or create, income. Eventually, Soreff hopes her blog will draw potential producers or investors, just as Ceniza-Levine’s blog— in conjunction with her newspaper articles, bi-monthly newsletters, and column for CNBC—helps her recruit new clients. “It’s a way for people to get used to [my approach],” Ceniza- Levine says, “and see if what I do will work for them.” Sarah Walker Caron ’01, whose food blog, “Sarah’s Cucina Bella,” attracts 15-20 thousand visitors each month, earns enough revenue from advertising “to pay for the month’s groceries, in a good month.” And Kathy Ebel ’89, author of “Fatherland,” is shopping her blog to book publishers. However, garnering publicity and readers for a blog is a science unto itself, and most people who blog do it simply as a hobby.</p>
<p>Unlike Soreff, who has always considered herself a writer, current student Melissa Lohmann ’10, started as a reluctant blogger. A psychology major, she received a Gilman Scholarship to study Japanese language and culture this past summer and fall, first with the Hokkaido International Foundation program, and then at Doshisha University as part of Barnard’s Study Abroad program. The Gilman Scholarship requires participants to share their experiences or promote studying abroad, so Lohmann started a blog.</p>
<p>“I’d never been interested in reading friends’ blogs,” she says. “I didn’t understand the concept of posting things for everyone else to see until I kept my own.” She quickly discovered that her blog made it easy to stay in contact with friends and family in the States, who could check the Web site to read about her exploits. It also became a journal of her personal growth and a happy introduction to the writing life.</p>
<p>“I almost forgot about the whole service requirement,” she says. “It allowed me to be creative. Before, I used writing to express myself only in school papers and e-mails to friends. This was more voluntary. Now, after writing a good blog post, I feel accomplished, and that I could be a writer. My aunt printed the whole thing—it’s 200 pages—and put it in a binder and is reading it as if it were a novel. It makes me feel passionate about writing.” Still, once she finishes recording the last few weeks of her trip, and the “re-entry” process to the United States, she’s not sure whether she’ll continue the blog project. Blogging, she says, is extremely time-consuming; in the time it took to write an “interesting and factual” post, she could have been experiencing something new outside.</p>
<p>(Gretchen Young, Barnard’s dean for study abroad, maintains a list of blogs by Barnard students abroad at www. barnardabroad.blogspot.com.)</p>
<p><strong>Proceed with Caution</strong></p>
<p>Demonstrating the openness—some might say naïveté—of many young people who blog, Lohmann “never thought about potential employers or professors looking at my blog. If they did, I have nothing to hide. I’m not ashamed of anything. I’m not scared of putting anything on my blog.”</p>
<p>There can be reasons to be scared, if not ashamed. Many authors of “personal blogs”—including Hunt, until recently— write anonymously to maintain their privacy. Others publish their names but blog about extremely limited subjects— Israeli politics, orphotography, rather than one’s marriage or children—so as not to reveal one’s private life on a public Web site.</p>
<p>Including too many details on a blog can lead to awkward situations, such as the time that Kristina “Krissie” McMenamin ’05 wrote on her fashion blog that she’s only once seen her boss in a skirt. “Someone told me later that [my boss] had read it,” McMenamin says. “I freaked out because I didn’t know my boss read my blog. She never said anything to me, and told someone else that she was flattered that I wrote about her. But since then I haven’t mentioned anything about anyone else’s personal style, unless I think it’s really great.” (Camahort Page said that only 3 to 5 percent of abandoned blogs come to an end because the author’s family or employer finds out about it; the most common reasons for giving up blogging are lack of time, and loss of interest in the topic.)</p>
<p>One Barnard alumna, who graduated in the late 1990s, asked to remain anonymous because her blog, “Breeding Imperfection,” focuses on her two children’s multiple, deadly food allergies, and on her older son’s hemophilia. Although those who know her can easily connect her family with the Web site, she doesn’t want her husband’s potential employers (she herself left graduate school to care for her children) to be able to discover, by Googling their names, that their health insurance must cover the older boy’s $11,000-per-month treatments. Nor does she wish her son to be denied health insurance in the future because of her blog.</p>
<p>She blogs partly because writing about parenting helps her evaluate her own performance, and partly because, as an ex-academic, she needs the intellectual exercise, but “the more ruthless aspect of why I blog,” she says, is that problems like bleeding disorders and anaphylactic shock are not “appropriate topics for casual conversation, unless you want to end the conversation.” Like Hunt, she often feels invisible.</p>
<p>“I make my audience listen to me,” she says of her blog, specifying that her site gets only about 30 “hits” a day, and she is writing to “a pretend audience, the girlfriend to whom you can say anything.”</p>
<p>“I have a kid who needs me to stick needles in him,” she continues. “He needs to be comfortable with the needles. So we empower him by teaching him to perform the procedure himself. This gives people the willies. I can’t talk about it. But I can blog about it.” Still, she adds, there is much about her personal life she does not post, since she knows that her parents and in- laws are regular readers.</p>
<p>Camahort Page confirmed that a large percentage of women bloggers are new mothers, mothers of special needs children, or grieving mothers—in other words, women who feel isolated and use blogging as a way to reach out to others who “get it.”</p>
<p>“I’m surprised by the random people who leave comments on my posts,” Hunt says. “It’s a funny feeling—it’s lovely. There are people out there connecting with me. Even if they don’t know the whole me, they know the ‘Living in Invisible Cities’ me. The community of parents online with special-needs kids is so supportive, full of caring people who reach out and offer a kind word. It’s special to be part of that.”</p>
<p>More Barnard bloggers at alumnae.barnard. edu/magazine.</p>
<p>-<em>by Sarah Bronson '95, illustration by Katherine Streeter</em></p>
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</div></div></div>Wed, 01 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000sgw21179528 at https://barnard.eduGrowing a Networkhttps://barnard.edu/headlines/growing-network
<div class="field field-name-field-taxonomytopics field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/topics-29" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">community</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/topics-146" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Social Media</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p><strong>“You found a way </strong>to make e-mail useful to you, you’ll find a way to make Facebook useful to you,” Sree Sreenivasan, leading technology expert and dean of student affairs at Columbia, told the skeptical crowd that had gathered in Julius Held Lecture Hall for the Social Networking panel. The office of Alumnae Affairs, in conjunction with the Alumnae Association Reunion Committee and Barnard Business and Professional Women, put together this Reunion event. Moderated by Lisa Weinert ’02, publicity manager at Random House, it addressed a medium that, despite resistance by some, is part of how the world functions now.</p>
<p>Essentially what social networking sites offer is a form of community for people who share interests, activities, or personal connections. Of the many services available online, the most prominent (at the moment) are Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, each of which serves a different purpose. In addition to these three, there are sites and services for specific groups, like eons.com for baby boomers, or Shine, a site for women administered by Yahoo! and run by editor-in-chief and Reunion panelist Brandon Holley ’89. “What’s really neat to me is seeing women being able to connect and share things,” said Holley. But for those wondering what is being shared and why, there are many answers.<img alt="" class="image-inline_medium" src="https://barnard.edu/../../sites/default/files/styles/inline_medium/public/images/inline/growinganetwork.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 1em 1em;" title="" /></p>
<p><strong>Facebook</strong></p>
<p>One alumna joked that panelist Sarah Cohen ’08 and her contemporaries probably don’t want the older generations on Facebook. To which Cohen, Barnard Web administrator, replied, “I <em>made </em>my mom join Facebook because my family is kind of far-flung and I wanted us to keep in touch.”</p>
<p>Sreenivasan agreed, “I’m in better touch with my family—spread over nine countries in four continents—as a result of Facebook than I ever would have been otherwise. If they waited for me to write the letter or I waited for them, it wouldn’t happen.” This is first and foremost the appeal of social networking sites, allowing instant and continuous contact with friends and family, near or far, without cost or much effort.</p>
<p>Surpassing MySpace in worldwide unique visitors, Facebook is now the most popular social networking site on the Internet. What started out as a service for Harvard students in 2004, soon opened to other colleges, and, by the end of 2005, to high schools. In 2006 the general public could access Facebook. The site has more than 200 million active users. Its fastest growing demographic is users over 35, according to the site. Facebook’s appeal is the simplicity of the interface and layout, relatively few ads, and the ability to set individual levels of privacy for each “Friend.”</p>
<p>When opening an account on any of the major sites, a user may import their e-mail contact lists to search for people they know who may already have accounts or invite those who do not have one to open an account and become a Friend. For each Friend on Facebook, a user can adjust her privacy settings to include or exclude certain people. For example, if you post family photos on your Wall (your profile page’s public forum space), you can set up your profile to keep work colleagues from seeing the Wall, but still allow them access to other aspects of your profile.</p>
<p>For some, it’s a fast way to send a message to a large group of people. Cohen recalled that as a student, Facebook not only allowed her to virtually meet her classmates online the summer before attending Barnard, but once at school it became a powerful marketing tool. “If you had an event at Columbia and you wanted students to be there, you would just say to everyone [in the Columbia network], ‘Hey, we’re having an event today on the lawn, c’mere.’ As we started using these tools, our needs for these tools started to grow as well.” Sreenivasan also noted that Facebook is useful in his work as dean, “If I really want to reach [my students] I need to ‘Facebook’ them. That means being connected to them where they are.”</p>
<p><strong>LinkedIn</strong></p>
<p>Panelist Andrea Katz Stimmel ’76, class president and director of business development for Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt &amp; Mosle LLP, made that company the first big law firm (in <em>American</em> <em>Lawyer</em>’s top 200) to use Facebook as a tool to recruit law students, a wildly successful campaign. However, her personal networking site of choice is LinkedIn. The site, which is far less casual than Facebook, allows users to post résumés and links to outside sites, ask for and display recommendations, and join common-interest groups.</p>
<p>“In my business, and in most businesses, it’s really all about relationships: If you need to make a sale to someone, if you need to influence a sale because you’re halfway in the door, or if you need to expand your knowledge in a certain area, you just ask your network. Erin [Fredrick] found out that I’m doing all this work in social networking because I posted on my LinkedIn profile [that I was] giving a speech to the city bar association on how to use social networking…. And Erin is a member of my group. She called me up and she said, ‘I didn’t know you were doing that.’ … [Y]ou throw a rock in the water … and you create a ripple…. That’s what happens in these social-networking sites,” said Stimmel.</p>
<p>For those on the hunt for a job, be aware that potential employers are using sites like LinkedIn to research candidates. “I’ve been in the business development and research world for a long time,” said Stimmel, “and we used to go to <em>Who’s</em> <em>Who</em>…. And we used to go to all these resources to try to find out about people.</p>
<p>Invariably if you just go to LinkedIn, most people in business are there in some capacity.” Being able to see each other’s “Connections,” the other users in your network, also removes the awkwardness of introducing associates to one another, which used to require giving out e-mail addresses. “If I want to find out about someone … I just ask you to introduce me to so-and-so [through LinkedIn], and then all of the sudden I’m not only seeing that person’s profile but all their Connections as well,” observed Stimmel. Although being on a site like LinkedIn does not guarantee anyone a job, it is possible that a candidate with a résumé, recommendations, and a strong network of Connections on LinkedIn may have a leg up on a candidate who has no Internet presence.</p>
<p><strong>Twitter and Tweeting</strong></p>
<p>LinkedIn and Facebook serve as gathering spots where people can share varying amounts of information; the purpose of Twitter is a bit more equivocal. A networking service (also referred to as a micro-blog), Twitter allows a user to deliver “tweets,” text messages of no more than 140 characters, to “Followers,” people who subscribe to a user’s Twitter feed. As Sreenivasan noted at the panel, Twitter is both a talking and listening device, depending on how you want to use it. Although 140 characters does not seem like much, Sreenivasan pointed out that it’s more than the average newspaper headline, something designed to say a lot in very little space.</p>
<p>This past June Twitter was a rallying tool for the election-result protests in Iran. The FDA uses Twitter to make recall announcements; many companies use it to follow and shape conversations about their products. Performers and arts organizations make announcements about events and opportunities like ticket giveaways. Many often include links, where the Follower can find more information. For example, on May 18, Barnard College tweeted: “Sec. of State Hillary Clinton is speaking at Barnard’s commencement right now<a href="http://bit.ly/19hn4y"> http://bit.ly/19hn4y</a>”, the link leading the user to a page featuring a live-video feed.</p>
<p><strong>Up to You</strong></p>
<p>It is up to the user to decide whether or not she has something important to write about and what she finds important enough to follow. Just as everyone needs to be savvy about what they read in a magazine or newspaper, we need to be savvy about what we read on Twitter and other online communities, reminded Holley. There is misinformation on these sites, she noted, “but there are times when it’s about something that’s personal and you just want to hear someone else’s story, the common person’s wisdom.” Some of that wisdom blogged on Shine has gained enough of a following that the bloggers have become regular paid writers for the site. Moderator Lisa Weinert agreed that using the Web as a writing outlet can lead to more success; a book she is currently promoting at Anchor began as a blog.</p>
<p>In addition to deciding what to pay attention to, it’s up to the user to decide how much time to dedicate to social networking. “I don’t think anybody here is advocating just spending all your life [online],” said Sreenivasan. For some it’s the perfect thing to do on their handheld device while waiting in line, others may want to discipline themselves to 20 minutes each morning, or there are those who will weave it throughout a workday that has them in front of a computer anyway. “This is all new....We’re making it up as we go along. There’re no rules about any of these things,” said Sreenivasan. He then cautioned, “Common sense doesn’t end when you go online.” In other words, watch what you write and be polite.</p>
<p><em>—by Deborah Staab, illustration by The Heads of State</em></p>
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